October 20, 2025 • 54 mins
#185 - Before longboards hit storefronts and GoPros hit helmets, Jack Smith and two friends pointed a 1969 Firebird toward the horizon and skated into history. Jack Smith talks about how a simple leapfrog relay turned a wild idea into the first recorded skateboard crossing of the United States—and how that journey shaped everything that came after.
We trace the arc from clay “crumble” wheels to first‑gen urethane and on to the big trucks and 70mm wheels that made 1980s distance skating faster and safer. Jack breaks down the daily cadence—early pushes, midday pool stops, evening miles—and the small-town moments that still stick: a Minnesota marquee that read “Welcome skateboarders,” a West Virginia diner that wasn’t sure what to make of three long‑haired kids, and strangers in Ohio who handed over house keys and dinner plates without hesitation. He tells the story that stays with him most: a rain delay at Yellowstone, a missed geyser, and a roadside rescue that, decades later, circled back through a single email to confirm a life saved.
We also explore how purpose and technology reshaped the ride. Jack’s 2003 crossing raised awareness for Lowe syndrome after the loss of his son; his 2018 electric skateboard traverse with his wife leading a camper van turned battery swaps into a moving pit crew. Along the way, he argues for the slower road—South Dakota’s rolling Highway 212, atlas pages over pure GPS—and why the “real America” lives beyond freeway exits. Jack shares updates on his feature screenplay and novel, plans for a 50‑year retrace in an electric VW, and a shout‑out to the new generation of cross‑country pushers proving that momentum beats perfection.
Hit play to learn how to design a relay that works, dial your long‑distance skate setup, and rethink what’s possible when you stop waiting for perfect conditions. If this conversation moves you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help more curious listeners find the road. Which back road would you choose next?
To learn more about Jack give him a follow on Instagram @jack_smith_morro_bay.
Want to be a guest on Journey with Jake? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/journeywithjake
Visit LandPirate.com to get your gear that has you, the adventurer, in mind. Use the code "Journey with Jake" to get an additional 15% off at check out.
Visit geneticinsights.co and use the code "DISCOVER25" to enjoy a sweet 25% off your first purchase.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Before there were longboards, energy drinks, or
(00:02):
GoPros, there was Jack Smith.
In 1976, he became one of thefirst to officially skateboard
across America.
His story isn't just about theride, it's about grit, freedom,
and chasing something biggerthan yourself.
Welcome to Journey with Day.
This is a podcast aboutadventure, and how through our
adventures we can overcome thechallenges of life that come our
(00:23):
way.
Well, I expect you will learnsome things about different
adventures.
The show will entertain you.
Each episode will featuredifferent guests, forecasts,
feature experiences, stories,different adventures they have
been done.
Not only will you beentertained, but you'll also
have to tell your differenttrials.
(01:39):
But that first trip was only thebeginning.
Jack has since taken on severalother cross-country rides,
including relay pushes and evenan electric skateboard trek
across the U.S.
His story is packed with historygrit and a whole lot of passion
for adventure.
I do want to apologize for a bitof audio issues, but hopefully
that doesn't deter anyone fromthe spirit of this conversation.
(02:00):
If you enjoyed this episode,you'll also want to check out
episode 151 with Jacob Lamansky,who biked around the world,
another incredible story aboutperseverance in the spirit of
exploration.
All right, let's get rollingwith Jack Smith.
This is fun for me.
I've got Jack Smith on the showwith me today.
Jack, welcome to Journey withJake.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, I'm excited to have you.
(02:21):
I'm excited to hear your story.
Way back in 1976, you took ajourney across America.
I believe, if I'm not mistaken,it was the first skateboarding
trek across the United States,as far as I know.
Yeah, that it was.
SPEAKER_02 (02:34):
It was uh like to say 1976.
I did it with uh two of mybuddies, a guy named Jeff
French, another fellow namedMike Philbin.
Nobody'd ever done it before.
We didn't have a clue what wewere doing.
The way we were able to pull itoff was that we came up with uh
what we call the leapfrog relaymethod.
And the way that works is thiswe'll call them skater A, start
(02:57):
skating in the morning wheneveryou started in the day.
And then skater, so skater Astarts skating.
The support vehicle, which was a1969 Firebird, drove out three
miles in front, stopped.
Skater B jumped out and took offskating.
The support vehicle waited forskater A to get there.
(03:18):
When he got in, got there, he'djump in the car.
The car would then drive threemiles forward, passing the
second skater, stop.
The third skater C would get outand take off, and the car would
wait for skater B to catch up.
So you just did that rotationall day, and we ended up, you
know, skatered 35 to 50 miles aday per skater.
SPEAKER_01 (03:42):
Per skater, so probably closer to 100 miles or
so, something like that.
SPEAKER_02 (03:45):
Some days we approached 150 uh if it was flat
and good pavement.
SPEAKER_01 (03:50):
So that's uh that's how we were able to pull it off.
That's interesting.
Before we in before we even diveinto that, where were uh where
are you from?
Kind of give them a littlebackground before that even
happened, just so I kind of knowwho who Jack is a little bit.
SPEAKER_02 (04:02):
I grew up in a militar in an Air Force family,
went to 17 schools before I wasa sophomore in high school when
we moved to Morrow Bay.
The day after graduation, I seethis you know, old skateboard
laying in the in the ice plant.
And so we dug it out, and it wasa clay wheeled board, and we
started pushing around on it,having fun.
(04:23):
So we built a few more.
We didn't even know the urethanewheels had happened yet.
And so we started uh skating.
We'd go at at night.
We'd only go at night down thein in the downtown area because
skateboarding at the time wasstill considered a kind of a
kid's pastime, and we didn'twant anybody to see us doing it.
(04:45):
Too embarrassing.
Yeah, exactly.
You know, I look at those guys,grow up, you know.
So eventually, you know, the theEarth and Wheels came out and we
got got involved in those and umI just became immersed in it.
I don't know if you've ever seenthe movie Lords of Dogtown.
I have not seen that movie, no.
It's a big Hollywood film, andone of the pivotal scenes in the
(05:08):
movie is what they call the DelMar contest.
It was held in 1975.
And it was kind of the first bigcontest of the 70s.
We traveled down to it andbreezed in it and competed in
it, and uh from there there wasno looking back.
SPEAKER_01 (05:23):
You you kept talking about the wheels.
So originally skateboards in theearly days, they had like what
those like really hard wheels.
What were they made out of?
Well, everybody calls them claywheels.
SPEAKER_02 (05:36):
There was no clay involved.
They just they just they Ialways tell people they look
like clay, they rode like clay,and they crumbled like clay.
They were actually a plasticpolymer.
Some of the companies actuallyput ground-up walnut shells in
the mix as a filler material sothey wouldn't have to use so
much plastic.
And they were terrible.
(05:57):
Any little rock you hit, doubleyou hit, crack in the sidewalk.
You couldn't ride on asphaltbecause it was just too rough.
So that's why in the 60sskateboarding only lasted a
couple of years.
It was a fad.
I mean, there were some guys whowere very good, but there just
wasn't, you know, the controlthat it was needed for the
(06:19):
masses.
So it kind of faded away untilthe Ukraine wheel came out in
the early 70s.
SPEAKER_01 (06:24):
So those came out in the early 70s, and that's what
allowed you to go across the thecountry.
There's no way you could havedone on the other wheels.
SPEAKER_02 (06:31):
Yeah, I mean, you could have, but it wouldn't have
been very difficult.
Because there were people that,you know, back in the 1920s that
rode roller skates acrossAmerica.
Same kind of wheels.
Same kind of and and actuallysome of them might have even
done it on steel wheels.
SPEAKER_01 (06:47):
But it would, yeah, it would have been a nightmare.
So you got stuck, you got hookedon skateboards, you know, you
and your right, you know, rightwhen you graduate.
How did this whole idea of like,hey, we don't know what we're
doing, but we don't care.
We want to go across thecountry.
SPEAKER_02 (07:00):
Well, you know, to this day, I but there was a I
don't remember who said it.
There were a bunch of us weresitting hanging out one evening
in in the summer of well, thespring of 76, and where it's you
know, somebody just threw it outthere.
Hey, let's let's skateboardacross America.
Okay, that sounds fun.
You know, we wouldn't have tohave a regular job that summer.
(07:23):
So I had had a little connectionwith this company from Florida,
a company called Roller Sports.
They had sent me some wheels forthat, the Del Mar race.
It was funny when they sent methe wheels, nobody, you know, my
I told my friends, hey, thiscompany sent me wheels for free.
Nobody believed me.
So when we we hatched this idea,we sat down and we put together
(07:44):
a letter and we mailed it tothem, telling them what we
wanted to do.
And, you know, we we trulythought, we'll never hear from
them.
About 10 days later, we got aletter back from them.
You know, this is back, youknow, of course, pre-internet,
so you had to wait for the mail.
And we got this uh letter fromthe company president.
He said, Hey, this sounds like areally neat idea.
(08:06):
We're we're into it.
Here's the offer we'll make.
And at first we thought it wasgoing to take us like 60 days to
do.
They said, We'll give you allthe gear you need, boards,
wheels, trucks, and then we'llwe'll give you 180, one for each
guy for each day of the trip,which was just kind of bizarre.
(08:28):
And then they said we'll pay you$500 each if you make it.
So we had to make it.
We we came up with uh you knowthe method of the the relay
method.
One of the original, two of theoriginal guys dropped out before
before we even got deep into theplanning stages.
So we got two other guys steppedin.
(08:48):
And then the one guy that camealong, he was a good skater, but
he had the best car of us all ofus.
So, you know, okay, we'll takeyour car, Jeff.
We did we did no training forthis thing.
You know, we're just let's go.
We built a rack for the top ofthe car, which promptly
collapsed before we got outsidebefore we got outside our city
limits.
(09:09):
So we turn around and go buy arack for the top of the car.
We planned our route by justgetting an old road atlas and
and and a Rand McNally roadatlas.
And and our thinking was well,let's let's go across the
northern part of the countrybecause it might be cooler,
which it wasn't, it was plentyhot.
(09:30):
You know that from where youlive.
We thought, well, let's lesspopulation mean maybe less
traffic.
And that that did work out untilwe got towards the east coast.
Um so we started in uh Lebanon,Oregon, and we finished in
Williamsburg, Virginia.
And the the key thing for us waswe had to take back roads, uh
(09:51):
secondary highways, you know, wedidn't want to skate on
interstates.
You know, and it was you know,it was somewhat unnerving, you
know, just you're talking it'sthe mid-70s, we all have hair
down, you know, past ourshoulders, and we're thinking,
you know, are you gonna gethassled?
And we had a few, you know, afew occasions where we got
(10:13):
heckled, but for the most part,people were really helpful,
helped us out with, you know, wegot lost, helped us out with you
know free meals, free lodgingsometimes, staying at people's
houses.
So that that it worked outreally well.
SPEAKER_01 (10:30):
Yeah, I'm you know, I'm thinking about it, and that
was before my time.
I was born in 77, so I missedout, you know, so I'm a little
bit younger.
But you know, I think back tothose times, you know,
skateboarding now is so popular,and there's competitions, and
it's in the 70s though, I don'tI can't imagine, like you said,
it was more of like a littlekids thing.
It wasn't so much a thing.
(10:52):
So I could imagine people seeingyou guys along the road,
especially, I mean, theyprobably thought you were like
hippies, like you know, hippiesfrom California cruising across
the country.
SPEAKER_02 (11:02):
You just nailed it.
That's what you know.
I mean, skateboarding blew upvery quickly, like starting in
about 74, 75.
And and it was still consideredmost people across the country
didn't even know whatskateboarding was in the 70s
when we were going across.
And in the mention, youmentioned the long hair.
Mike had the longest hair of anyof us.
It was halfway down his back.
Mike was somewhat of a you know,a slender build.
(11:24):
He liked to skate with a shirtoff.
So on one more than oneoccasion, people would come
driving up behind Mike and thenslow down right when they got to
him because they thought he wasa girl skating without a shirt
on.
You know, and then they'd lookover like, oh, that's not a
girl, you know, that's a hippie.
SPEAKER_01 (11:40):
So it was for the most part, the people were very
helpful and very friendly.
When you first took off, whenyou first left Lebanon, what was
that kind of feeling like?
Was it just, you know, you gotthe whole world in front of you,
the whole country in front ofyou.
What was going through yourminds as you guys took off?
SPEAKER_02 (11:57):
Yeah, within a few miles we realized it's gonna be
much harder than we thought.
You know, because Lebanon, youskate out of Lebanon, and pretty
soon you're up onto the SandyAnt Pass, climbing, you know, up
through the Cascades.
And, you know, and then at theend of that day, we looked at
the map and you know, we maybewent a hundred miles and and we
looked at it on a map and like,oh, we didn't we've got all this
(12:20):
left to go 2,900 miles.
And yeah, it was kind ofdaunting at the start, but we
got into a rhythm, you know,just put your head down and and
and keep pushing and you know,get the occasional downhill,
which was nice.
SPEAKER_01 (12:32):
Was it kind of like just morning to evening kind of
thing?
How did you guys did you haveplans?
SPEAKER_02 (12:37):
You know, we would kind of look every day on a map
and look at the terrain andthink, okay, we could not too
hilly, not too mountainous, wecan probably make it to this
city.
So we would, you know, pick apoint and say, okay, we want we
want to get here, you know, bythe end of the day.
And some days we did, and andsome days didn't.
And kind of our schedule was, weas we got into the rhythm of
this thing, was we would skate,get up early, skate in the
(13:00):
morning, skate until it got tothe heat of the day, and we'd
try and set it up so that wewould end up in a town that
might have a city pool so wecould hang out at the pool, you
know, during the hot part of theday, and then we would go skate
some more in the evening.
And you know, basically use itas a shower, too.
SPEAKER_01 (13:52):
Oh, you hippies.
Oh, yeah.
Oh amazing.
When you were going across, wasthere any particular moment, any
particular state, maybe aparticular mountain you kind of
I don't know.
Is there any particular maybe acouple a story or two of a
couple of things that you wentthrough that you could share
with us?
SPEAKER_02 (14:10):
In 76, we were going through Idaho and uh and we
ended up in a little town calledIdaho Falls on July 4th.
My I had a cousin that livedthere, and her and her husband
said, Hey, just come stay at ourhouse.
So we did, and it wasinteresting, it's kind of the
sign of the times is that heworked for a big potato company
up there.
(14:30):
He was a general manager orsomething, and we were so
amazed.
He took us to his office and helet us make what they called
watch calls, wide area telephoneservice, long-distance phone
calls for free.
You know, that was a huge deal.
Like, we could what?
We don't have to pay to callhome.
But the other thing thathappened in Idaho Falls, we were
(14:53):
there on July 4th.
So that during the day that day,we took a day off.
And I remember asking mycousin's husband's name was
Dave.
I'm like, hey, can we go checkout some fireworks tonight?
And he's like, no, there's nofireworks display tonight.
I'm like, it's July 4th, it's1976, it's a bicentennial.
There's gotta be a fireworks.
(15:13):
He says, You're you're you're inuh you're in Idaho, this is
Mormon country.
Fireworks are can't be on theSabbath there tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01 (15:23):
So we waited around another day to see the
fireworks.
1976, too.
I mean, yeah, that's classic,you know, and it happened to
fall on a you know, I'm fromUtah, so I know what he's
talking about.
SPEAKER_02 (15:34):
You know, yeah, it was it was uh it was you know,
we were just three kids from asmall town in California, we had
no idea that you know that thatkind of thing happened.
Wow, and how about makinglong-distance telephone calls?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I mean that flashing forward toanother thing that happened that
was really cool was uh we're inMinnesota, we're approaching
(15:55):
Minneapolis, and Jeff's skatingalong, he's out in front of the
car skating, and when we catchup, we finally catch up to him,
we see him standing in thisparking lot under this big motel
sign, you know, 30, 40 feethigh, it has a big marquee, and
it says, Welcome skateboarders.
And we're like, okay, that'sgotta be us.
We walk in and say, hey, whereare the skateboarders?
(16:16):
What's going on?
And they said, Oh, your yourlocal chamber of commerce
contacted the town was calledHopkins, Minnesota, contacted
our chamber of commerce and saidyou'd be coming through.
So we thought we'd give you afree place to stay.
And we got the full rock startreatment.
We were we uh the place wascalled the Hopkins House.
(16:36):
We had each of us was one bigsuite on the top floor, each of
us had our own room.
You had to take a specialelevator to the top, same kind
of deal.
They said everything's on thehouse, meals, and they said, and
you can make phone calls, justgo ahead and call, don't worry
about the cost.
And to us, once again, that wasa huge deal.
(16:58):
So we called everybody we knew,you know, and told them we were
brought stars for the day andfor the evening.
And I that you know, it's funny.
I still have photos of that uhof that marquee.
And yeah, and it was really coolof our chamber of commerce to to
do that.
Um head of the chamber ofcommerce when I told him what
we're doing.
(17:18):
He said, hey, I'm gonna writesome letters to people along
your route and see if I can helpyou out.
SPEAKER_01 (17:22):
And some of the chambers help us out.
That's amazing, especiallybecause you think back then,
it's pre-internet days.
There's no social media to like,I mean, now people go in now,
they can, you know, people knowpeople are coming, and it's just
totally different.
And I always tell people that,you know, I've done this thing
numerous times.
SPEAKER_02 (17:39):
The first one was to this day is still my favorite
because nobody knew where theheck we were at.
We were just out, we didn't haveto post every day.
There was nowhere to post.
You know, and we worked out thissystem where, you know, every
couple of days one of us wouldcall our parents.
And then that parent would callthe other two parents and say,
(18:01):
hey, you know, they're still outthere, they're okay, you know,
so we didn't have to spend moneyon phone calls.
Um, but you know, you know, asit as the years went on and you
know, finally social media camearound.
I think 2003 was the first timewe made use of social media, you
know, and it added a wholenother layer to the trip because
at the end of the day, you'redone skating.
Okay, now we've got to go onsocial media, you know, we've
(18:23):
got to thank our sponsors, talkabout where we're at, you know.
So, and not that that's a badthing, it just added more work.
SPEAKER_01 (18:30):
Different.
Yeah, just more things to do.
Different.
There's definitely, you know, Imean, maps and just everything
is so much different now withthe technology.
SPEAKER_02 (18:39):
Here you go.
My in in 2013, last time Ipushed, my son was on the team,
my son Dylan.
And then my my my wife wasKathy, was the support vehicle
driver.
And Dylan and I would always getinto these conversations.
He'd be looking at Google Maps.
I'd be looking at the Atlas, andI'd say, Well, what about this
broad?
And he's like, It's not onGoogle Maps, Dad.
(19:00):
I'm like, I don't care.
It's on the Atlas.
It does make it easier for forroute finding, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (19:08):
Yeah, and that first trip, and we're we're kind of
talking about the first tripbecause I know you have done it
multiple times.
I think you did it, yeah, whatdid you say, 2003, 2013?
The second one was in 84.
SPEAKER_02 (19:18):
84, okay.
And that was with my twobuddies, uh, three guys,
actually Gary Floitt and PaulDunn, who grew up here in
Morrill Bay, and they're youknow six, seven years younger
than me.
And there's another fellow whohad went on the trip with his
Bob tonight, but Gary and Paulwere here, and we were skate
friends.
You know, they just got tired ofhearing all my stories.
(19:38):
And they said, In 84, there wasa situation where Highway 1 in
Morrow Bay, north of us uptowards Big Sur, was closed.
And the week before they weregoing to reopen it, we got a
friend to drive us around oneroadblock and we drove until we
hit the next roadblock, and weskated 58 miles on Highway 1
when it was closed, brand newpavement.
(19:59):
And on that trip, that's wherethe seeds of the 84 trip were
born.
You know, we put that triptogether, equipment had improved
a ton.
In fact, I'll show yousomething.
I've got brought these out justso you can see them.
This is the little board, only25 inches long, six inches wide.
These wheels were we thoughtthey were huge, but they're only
(20:24):
57 millimeters in diameter.
So that this is not the actualboard I rode, this is a replica.
The board I rode in 76 is inSmithsonian now.
SPEAKER_01 (20:36):
Wow, very cool.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (20:38):
By 84, things have changed.
We had a big old board, 40inches long, 70 millimeter
wheel, wider trucks, and it wasit just made the trip much
easier.
And we did it.
Uh the first trip took 32 days,and 76, 84, it took us uh 26
days.
SPEAKER_01 (20:58):
Wow, okay.
Picked up the picked up thepace.
SPEAKER_02 (21:01):
We had four guys, and you had more of a rest
period.
SPEAKER_00 (21:03):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:06):
What about as far as just like the wheels wearing out
and things like that?
I mean, did you have to likechange wheels every so often, or
is it pretty good?
SPEAKER_02 (21:12):
In 76, we changed wheels a lot because it was what
we call first generationurethane.
The constant heating and coolingof the wheels would cause them
to lose whatever resilience theyhad.
They were really, they, I mean,they wear down a bit, but it was
really that they would just getslower because they'd lose the
resilience.
In 84, I think we changed wheelstwice.
(21:33):
That's how good they were.
So we're you know, in 84, weskated, you know, 750 to 800
miles was our total per skater.
In 76, it was right around athousand miles per skater.
And as we as the as the yearswent on, everything just kept
getting better.
Specialized decks, specializedtrucks, uh, your thing compounds
(21:57):
improved.
Um the difference between 1984and 2003, and that little dude
there on the nose of the board,that's my son Ju passed away in
in 2003 from a syndrome calledLowe syndrome, very rare genetic
(22:17):
syndrome.
And that's when we did the trickin 2003 to raise funds and
awareness for low syndrome.
How old was your son when hepassed away?
He was 14.
Wow, okay, so he's 14 years old.
When he was born, we were toldthat he probably wouldn't live
past two.
So he pulled everybody and livedat 14.
SPEAKER_01 (22:37):
Wow, amazing.
SPEAKER_02 (22:38):
Yeah, how many kids do you have then?
I have I have two two sons.
I actually have three.
I have Jack, who passed away,and then Dylan, and then there's
Will, and then a daughter,Lauren.
SPEAKER_01 (22:51):
So was the one who passed away, Jack, was he the
oldest's son?
He was yeah, he was the oldest,yeah.
He was the oldest.
Okay, wow.
And you lost your son at 14.
That served as some motivation.
Did you have motivation likethat for your other trips too in
2013, 2084?
SPEAKER_02 (23:06):
In 84, we decided, let's, if we're going to do this
thing, let's do it for cause.
So we actually connected withthe uh Multiple Sclerosis
Society.
They were into it right from thestart.
People could pledge moneydirectly to us or to the
Multiple Sclerosis Society.
And it was really interestingwhen we left Morrow Bay to drive
(23:27):
up to Oregon in '84, the MSSociety would just happen to be
having their national conventionin San Francisco.
So they invited us to stop byfor lunch.
And we got introduced to thewhole crowd.
And, you know, it was funny,everybody's in suits and ties
and we're in shorts andt-shirts.
But they was just standing onrace home, we laughed.
They, you know, they were veryappreciative of our efforts.
(23:50):
Different places across thecountry, they they arranged for
press for us uh to talk about MSand where we're doing this.
One funny story is in Boise,Idaho, they arranged for us to
go to the steps at the state tothe steps of the state capitol
and do a press conference.
They also got us a motorcycle uhescort, police motorcycle
(24:10):
escort.
And so as they pick us up on theother town, they ask Paul, they
said, Um, how kind of can youguys skate?
And Paul's like, Oh, 15 miles anhour.
Yeah, we can skate 15 miles anhour for short periods.
So the the cops drove 15 milesan hour about kids before we got
to the state capitol, and thendid the same thing when we left.
(24:32):
But it was funny to be, youknow, because there's always
been perceived friction betweenlaw enforcement and
skateboarders and to beescorted, you know, by the
police.
And we kind of thought, youknow, are they doing this to
keep us safe or they just wantus out of town?
SPEAKER_01 (24:51):
Are they really, yeah, are they trying to get us
out of here?
What's the deal?
That's funny.
That's good stuff.
SPEAKER_02 (24:56):
While we're while we're on the 84 trip, I I just
want to share this.
It's the most amazing story ofany trip I've been on.
So 1984.
We're near we're on the westside of Yellowstone.
It's raining when we get up inthe morning.
We usually started right atsunrise.
We couldn't that day because ofthe raining, so we had to hang
out, followed, you know, theroads dried up, we start
(25:17):
skating.
We knew that we couldn't skatethrough Yellowstone.
So we'd get a mile from thegate, we'd uh we'd get in the
car, we'd drive to the gate, wepay our feet, we get about a
mile into the park, stop, one ofus starts skating.
Right away, we get busted.
I mean, we had went a hundredyards and we got busted.
(25:38):
So look, hey, we're here anyway,let's let's play tourists.
So we go down to Old Faithful,and we it just went off.
So, all right, well, let's justwalk around a little bit and
then we'll come back and see it,you know, erupt.
We walk around, come back,missed it again.
So we thought, okay, we're justgonna sit there for 56 minutes
(26:00):
or whatever it is.
So we sit there and we iterupts.
So then we have to drive to theeastern gate of Yellowstone.
So we get there, once we get outof the park, we start, we're
going along, there's two guys inthe car, one skater out in
front, and as the two guys aredriving along, all of a sudden
(26:23):
this woman comes running up ontothe road.
She's looks crazed.
She's she's muddy, she's wet,and she's waving it the she's
waving at the we're in the we'rein the van.
Chrysler gave us the van thatsummer, and we we had it, you
(26:43):
know, lettered with what we weredoing.
Skateboard, and and she's she'sscreaming at us to stop.
So we stopped, and she's are youthe ambulance?
And we're like, No.
Later on, we figured out why shethought we why she thought we
were an ambulance, because wecould, with all the lettering,
we could have determined used tous look like an ambulance.
(27:04):
And we're like, no, what's goingon?
And she says, I think mydaughter drowned, I think my
baby drowned.
And about that time, thiscowboy-looking guy comes up out
of the creek with a littletwo-year-old girl in his arms.
And he looks dead.
And we're like, put her in thevan, we'll we'll take you to
(27:24):
where we're about 40 miles eastof or 40 miles west of Cody,
lining a time.
She's like, and she's so freakedout, she says, But I'll I'm
gonna I'll get your van, we'regonna get your van, Muddy.
And like Paul just says, get inthe damn van.
And so they jump in the van.
So Paul's with them, they takeoff down the road towards Cody,
(27:47):
myself and and Gary are juststanding there.
And so Paul goes flying up theroad, passing Bob, and Bob just
looks at him like, Where theheck are you going?
You know, he had no idea whathad happened.
So they're going along, Paulsees the sheriff's car coming
the other way.
So Paul just pulls the van andblocks the highway.
(28:10):
So the sheriff would stop.
Because he's thinking thesheriff can get her to the
hospital quicker than we could.
So the sheriff stops at first,he's like kind of pissed off,
like, what are you doing?
And we we got this little girlon car.
Right then, the little girlstops bleeding again.
So they take her out of the car,she's on the side of the road,
they're doing CPR, the sheriff'shelping out.
(28:30):
Just at that time, a doctor onhis way to Yellowstone for a
family vacation just happens todrive up.
He jumps out, he takes over thescene, and he's like, Look, we
gotta get her to Cody right now.
So they put her in the searchcar and they take her and they
go to Cody.
Turns around, comes back andfinds us.
(28:52):
We're all pumped on a drain.
We skate there, so we have 40miles to skate.
So we had to eventually make itto Cody, we get a cab drive, and
then after dinner, we're like,we should go, let's go to the
hospital, let's see whathappens.
Just as we walk into the maindoors of the hospital, the mom
is running out, and she's like,Oh, thank you guys, you know,
(29:12):
for your help.
And we're like, How's yourdaughter?
Like, I don't know.
They just put her in a lifelinehelicopter for Salt Lake City,
and she left.
So we had no idea.
Flashboard now to 2011.
Gary, one of the skaters on thetrip, was moving back from
Colorado to California, and he'sgoing through getting ready to
(29:36):
move, and he finds a newspaperarticle that we had been sent.
Because, you know, like I say,there was no internet.
So what we would do is wheneverwe got interviewed, we would
give the reporter aself-addressed self-ass
self-stacked envelope, and theywould send us the article.
And in that article, itmentioned that this little girl
had been life-slided to selllike she would condition
(29:59):
unknown.
But it mentioned her last nameand and her first name Gary like
I wonder what happened to her.
Gary actually works worked onGoogle at the time.
So he's a Google expert.
So he starts looking around andhe finds a person of about the
same age, same name, living inthe Salt Lake City area.
(30:22):
So he sends an email, he tracksher down to the house, finds an
email address, sends her email,and says, Hey, 1984 myself.
And two buddies were skatingacross the country, and we were
involved in what we think was ahopeful recipe, but we don't
know.
And we're just wondering if Iwas wondering if you're with
that little girl.
(30:42):
So four months go by.
She gets no response.
Finally, she gets an email.
The email starts out very I wasvery surprised to get your email
today.
I don't use this email accountanymore.
The only reason I came onlinetoday was to disclosure.
And then she says, Yes, I amthat hungry girl.
(31:05):
I thank you for helping forsaving my life.
She says I had no ill effectsfrom the near drowning.
I'm you know, whatever, 27, 30years old now.
I'm a newspaper reporter, justgetting ready to publish my
first novel.
And so Gary shares that emailwith all of us.
(31:26):
And I remember the night he sentit to me, I was sitting at my
desk and I get the email, I readthrough it, and then I tried to
read it to my wife, and I justtotally lost it.
Because I started thinking ofall the things that lined up to
put us there at that right time.
SPEAKER_01 (31:44):
So it was that's the most craziest thing that ever
happened on either.
That's an amazing story.
It's a beautiful story, and I,you know, you know, sitting
there listening to K is like,why is he why is he telling us
about missing old faithful acouple times?
Well, that's why.
I mean, you had to miss it inorder to line up.
SPEAKER_02 (32:03):
I mean, everything just the road between
Yellowstone and Cody, you know,it has some traffic, but not a
lot, you know.
And who knows?
Well, we wouldn't have beenthere.
That's amazing.
SPEAKER_01 (32:15):
That is wow.
And it just especially the timethat went by.
84 to 2011, you know, beforeamazing.
SPEAKER_02 (32:24):
Yeah, I get juice bumps every time I tell the
story.
Some usually I get teary-eyedtoo, because it's just it's so
heavy.
SPEAKER_01 (32:29):
Oh, absolutely.
So impactful.
Wow.
That is that's amazing.
As you look back over the yearsand you know, the the multiple
times you've done it, what kindof go, you know, what kind of
thoughts go through your mind?
Is do you and I know you'reabout to do something else.
I think you're about ready to goon another cross-country
adventure.
Why do you keep doing this?
What's the what's the joy in itfor you?
SPEAKER_02 (32:51):
To me, ever since that first trip, I learned that
going slowly across America isthe best way to see it.
You don't miss anything.
You hear everything, you seeeverything, you smell
everything.
Um, in fact, uh, when we werecoming back, my wife and I were
driving back across America inin 2018 from my electric board
(33:16):
ride.
We're on like Interstate 70 or80, and she kind of looks out in
the distance, you know, from theinterstate, and she points and
she goes, we were going past anexit, and she goes, No, this
isn't the real America.
And she pointed into thedistance.
She says, The real America'sover there when you get away
from the freeway.
Because on the interstate, everyexit's the same, you know, when
(33:36):
you're going across the country.
You know, we're skating throughthese small little towns,
meeting people, uh, sharing ourstory, hearing their stories,
what it's like to grow up inthese these little places.
I gotta tell you, from 76 towhen I did uh the electric bike
ride last year, a lot of smalltown America's gone.
Little towns have just fadedaway.
(33:56):
I just enjoy, you know, like Isay, seeing America in different
ways.
And and then and the personalchallenge too.
You know, like this thing I'mgetting the plan was to leave
actually on Friday to do thismotorcycle uh ride across
America.
But some things have come up, soit's it's been pushed back a
bit.
(34:17):
So it's it's it'll probablystill happen.
You know, it's just uh theelectric bike ride thing last
year was a blast.
I also did a few years ago, Imyself and a couple buddies
drove a 1964 electric Volkswagenvan has been converted to
electric.
We followed the route of thefirst guy that can drive a car
(34:37):
across San Francisco to NewYork.
And then we on the way back wedid the Lincoln Highway.
And then the next year Kathy andI borrowed the van again.
A friend of mine has a companycalled EV West, and they convert
whatever you want to electric.
So I asked him, hey, can Iborrow that bus again?
(34:59):
And he's like, Well, what's thedeal?
I said, Well, my wife and I areboth turning 66.
We got a new Route 66.
So he let us borrow it again,and and uh my wife and I drove
from Chicoliva to Santa Monica,Route 66.
Took us three weeks, it was ablast.
Um, and then last year, like Isaid, I did the electric bike
thing, which was I followed theroute of the first time to ride
(35:22):
a motorcycle across Tennessee.
And then with the motorcycle,with the motorcycle trip in the
works right now, I'm going tofollow the route that I used in
1976 the first time.
SPEAKER_01 (35:33):
It was fun, you know, fun and challenge.
I kind of want to ask if youjust kind of I guess we'll call
them rapid fire, but just kindof some questions about some of
the things.
So, and it could be maybe youknow, 76 if we want to go there,
but it doesn't have to be, itcan be any of your trips.
But is there a particular placethat's like your favorite?
Like when you get to like acertain state or a certain area
where you're just like, oh, Ilove this place.
SPEAKER_02 (35:53):
My favorite skate state to skate through is South
Dakota.
South Dakota.
Because you don't have to turn,you don't need directions, and
it's and it's kind of uh you'reon Highway 212 the whole way,
and it's nice rolling hills.
You get as much up as you dodown, and it's always just and
(36:14):
it's I love the the wide open,you know, wheat fields, I just
love that.
SPEAKER_01 (36:18):
Very good.
So South Dakota, I love that.
Besides your buddy, you know,with the long hair who did
skates without a shirt, andpeople kind of got a reaction
from people from him.
Any other kind of strangereactions from people?
Uh yes.
1976 again.
SPEAKER_02 (36:36):
We're in West Virginia, up in the
Appalachians, and it's about uhlunchtime, or it's early
evening.
You know, we pull into this, youknow, skate up this little
diner, and nothing but pickuptrucks, and we, you know, we go
walking in, and it's there'sthat Bob Seeger song about
(36:56):
walking into a cafe, andeverybody look turns around and
says, Is that a woman or a man?
And we walk in, and everybody inthe cafe turns and looks at us.
Like, who are these freaks?
And then they just went back totheir their meal.
The waitress barely spoke to usjust enough to get ordered.
(37:19):
This this old older guy walksover to the jump and he um puts
in his dime and punches up.
Thank God I'm a country boy byJohn Denver.
So, you know, we just we're justgetting this weird vibe.
So let's hurry up and eat andget out of here.
We get done, we walk, two of us,Jeff and I walk over to pay the
(37:41):
bill.
Then we see Mike walking over tothe jukebox.
We have no idea what he's up to.
He looks at through the songs,puts his dime in, and selects
the song by Fool for the City,which is a rocker.
And he comes walking over to usreal quick and says, All right,
we better get out of here.
(38:02):
We gotta have it real quick, youknow, before anything can
happen.
SPEAKER_01 (38:05):
Uh the characters, I mean, that and that's gotta be
just across all of your travels,just different parts of the
country, different, you know,people from all types.
SPEAKER_02 (38:14):
I think it was I think it was 76 again.
We're in uh in Ohio somewhere,we're at a gas station.
And and this guy, we know end ofthe day, we're gonna go to our
campground.
And this long, super long-hairedguy pulls up, getting gas at the
next gas pump and like, what areyou guys doing?
We told him what we're up to,and he's he's like, Well, where
(38:36):
are you staying tonight?
I said, We're gonna stay at thecampground.
He's like, No, no, you're youstay in my house.
You know, just follow me.
You know, he goes over the firsthe goes to the pond booth, and
he calls his wife, says, Hey,I'm bringing helps the company,
you know, three three guys, yougotta make some more food.
You know, there's a guy we nevermet.
You know, we we and we but wethere was enough trust, yeah,
we're gonna stay at your house,man.
SPEAKER_01 (38:57):
Is there a particular skateboard that
you're most sentimental about?
It would be that that first oneI showed you, the little bitty
one.
SPEAKER_02 (39:05):
You know, I mean that's that's you know, next
year is the 50-year anniversaryof that first ride.
And my wife and I are actuallyputting together a project where
we're going to, in an electricVolkswagen, either ours or one
we borrow, we're going toretrace the route.
I'm going to skate certainsections.
I'm not going to skate the wholething.
(39:25):
I'm inviting other skaters whohave done cross-country trips or
who've skated with me on some ofmine, you know, to come in and
join us for a day here andthere.
And we're going to interviewthem.
You know, what did the trip meanto them?
Did it change your life?
How do you when you think backon it?
And hopefully I'm going to beable to track down some people
who we met on that first trip orjust document the little changes
(39:45):
in the towns that we, some ofthe towns we went through.
SPEAKER_01 (39:48):
So that's that's what we're looking at for next
year.
Is there a particularcross-country snack of choice
for Jack?
SPEAKER_02 (39:57):
Well, not really snack, but the drink of choice
for a lot of these was Gatorade.
But in uh on the 2003 trip, wegot to the point where we
couldn't look at Gatorade.
Too much.
Yeah.
And to this day, my friend GaryFlewett, who went on the 84
trip, if we went in, if we tothis day, if we walked into a
(40:18):
restaurant someplace, we couldorder each other's meals.
We we knew what each otherwanted to had a doubt, what we'd
have for each meal.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (40:26):
I love it.
SPEAKER_02 (40:27):
That's that's fantastic.
The trip that was really fun wasthe the electric skateboard ride
because I'd always wanted to doit solo, and the electric board
gave me that opportunity.
And it was just my wife and I,and it was a hectic summer
because our daughter got marriedin June, our son got married in
July, and well, my wife retiredfrom teaching in June.
(40:50):
So we had this hectic summer,and then in August we take off
the skateboard across it, ridethe electric board across
Mexico.
It was just her and me, 53 days.
And we had a Volkswagen, uh, anewer Volkswagen, a Vanigan
camper that a company let usborrow.
And um, you know, we just justher and I trying to figure it
out how to do this.
(41:11):
You know, we finished on thestep steps of the Smithsonian,
and it was uh it was a reallyfun trip.
It was uh and to use the newtechnology was was also
interesting.
In fact, hang on, I'll screw itup for you.
Yeah, absolutely.
Let's check it out.
That's it, huh?
Yeah, that little thing on thefront's a remote.
You just hold that in your hand.
There's uh this little area hereis where the battery went, and
(41:32):
you could get about um seven tothirte miles, depending on
terrain per battery.
Kathy would would drive out infront of me and she would be
charging the batteries.
And then when I caught up toher, I'd give her whatever
batteries I'd used.
She'd give me fresh ones.
And and one time I made themistake when we got back,
somebody asked me, so your wifefollowed you across the country?
(41:54):
And I'm like, Yeah.
And she's like, No, I led youacross the country.
Get that right, Jack.
She had the much harder jobbecause she had to, you know, do
route finding, find places tostay.
And it was very brave of herbecause, you know, she's parked
on the side of the road in themiddle of nowhere by herself.
(42:15):
And every once in a while, I'dcome, you know, as I got close
enough to see her up ahead onthe road, once every once in a
while there'd be a policemanthere.
And they'd been or high patrol,you know, they'd drive by and
like, what's that woman doingout here by herself?
So they'd stop and talk to her,and sometimes they'd wait around
and just they want to meet thisidiot you know, riding a
electric skateboard across thecountry.
SPEAKER_01 (42:36):
If you look back, you know, all the years that
you've done this, what have youdone with it?
Because I think, if I'm notmistaken, you said something
about a screenplay and somethingabout a book.
So is that are you trying totake all those experiences and
what do you want to do with it?
SPEAKER_02 (42:50):
Well, we made a little documentary in 2016 about
the 76 trip.
It's eight minutes long becausewe didn't have much to work
with.
Because back in 76, you had toshoot Super 8 film, it was a
hassle.
And we had and then and evenshooting regular steel pictures
was a hassle because you had toget film, you had to develop it.
So we made this littleeight-minute film all beyond the
(43:13):
sidewalk.
But then I kept thinking, youknow, I'd like to do a feature
film, not a documentary.
And so I came up, startedworking on it, and I've done a
fictionalized version of that 76trip, and it's called With No
Direction Home.
I've incorporated things thathappened on some of the other
trips.
Like I incorporated the littlegirl drowning story into that
(43:37):
trip in 76, even though ithappened in 84.
Got the screenplay done, andthere's actually a little bit of
interest in it.
So hopefully it'll move forward.
But now I've I've taken, I'vedone it kind of backwards.
I've transformed it into anovel, and I'm actually in the
final editing stages of thatright now.
And then I don't know if I'llself-publish it or try and find
(44:00):
a publisher for it.
SPEAKER_01 (44:01):
Good for you.
I love that.
I love the fact that you'retaking those experiences and and
doing something with them.
SPEAKER_02 (44:06):
I was just gonna say, probably the one of the
most important things that cameout of that first 1576 was that
you know it gave me theconfidence to try things, to try
new things.
You know, it's like if youreally put your mind to it, you
can't do these things.
And it's kind of carried overthroughout my life with me.
SPEAKER_01 (44:23):
And that's what I wanted to ask.
I wanted to ask kind of how itrelated to your to your life.
And that's what it sounds like.
Like the confidence, the factthat I mean, and I would imagine
there were times where you'reprobably like, why am I doing
this?
And maybe you had moments whereyou wanted to quit.
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (44:39):
Yeah, many times, you know, for on every single
trip.
You you reach more than oncesometimes.
When we went over the theRockies in, I remember in 2003,
right by Jackson Hole, coming infrom Idaho up over the Teton
Pass.
You know, I'm like, why the heckam I doing this?
(45:02):
You know, I'm I'm just it's hot,super tired.
And then, you know, living in avan or a sport vehicle with
three or four other guys for amonth, you know, things get
testy sometimes.
SPEAKER_01 (45:14):
This has been amazing to hear your your story
and what you've done.
I think it's awesome that it'sit's built so much in you and
your character and who you are.
I like to ask this question onon all my shows because it's a
journey with Jake's an adventurepodcast, and it's kind of who
you are.
For you, Jack, when you thinkabout adventure, you think of
the word adventure, what doesadventure mean to you?
SPEAKER_02 (45:33):
Experiencing, you know, it sounds funny,
experience something new becauseI've done this these crossings,
but each one is new in itschallenges as far as what I'm
what type of vehicle I'm using,which route I'm doing, and
everyone's every every trip isdifferent.
Probably the best quote I'veever heard about adventure comes
(45:54):
from Yvonne Shenard, who is thefounder of Patagonia, and he
always says it's not anadventure until something goes
wrong.
And he writes.
SPEAKER_01 (46:06):
Yeah, no, I have one of my guests talked about that.
That you know, it's theadventure doesn't really begin
until something goes wrong.
And then how do you react?
What do you do?
How do you respond?
I mean, yeah, where you keepgoing or yeah, yeah.
Yours your adventure with thethe girl who drowned, you know,
is drowning.
That nothing went right there,but man, look at that.
(46:27):
Look back on look at theadventure that that was getting
you know, oh man, amazing.
All right, looking back, youlook back at young Jack, 1976,
Jack.
Here we are in 2025.
Knowing all you know now, andJack's getting ready to leave in
that 1976 trip, what would yourcurrent self, Jack, tell younger
Jack?
SPEAKER_02 (46:47):
This is a great question.
Just because I've been around along time and people find me on
the internet and that aregetting ready to do a
cross-country trip, and they'llask me, you know, for advice.
And I'll just I it's reallysimple.
I just say, just go.
You know, and and it'sinteresting because there's a
(47:09):
lot of you know, differentforums on the on the internet,
long-distance skating forums,long-distance bicycling,
whatever it may be, especiallythe long-distance skateboarding.
And you know, some guy will comeon and or a girl and say, hey,
I'm thinking about doing thiscross-country trip.
And people on the forum, youknow, instead, I mean, there are
(47:30):
some positive people, but peoplestart asking, well, what about
this?
What about that?
How are you gonna do this?
And I I posted one time, youknow, I'm glad the internet
wasn't around in 76 because Iprobably wouldn't have gone.
Because you you heard all thisnegativity.
What's really fun for me isright now, in this last few
years, there's been kind of arenaissance of people pushing
(47:52):
across America.
There was a guy a few years ago,Chad Caruso, did it by himself,
documented the whole thing, madea great documentary across the
America, and you know, hereached out to me before, and I
couldn't really give any advicebecause he was doing a much
different route.
But the guy did it, you know,with a back a little backpack on
(48:14):
a small board, not a lot ofboard.
He did use bigger soccer wheels.
Was it last year or year before?
Another fellow, Jason VentOpera, him and a buddy did it
without a support crew, and thenjust recently uh a guy, John
Underhill, uh, started in NorthCarolina and skated to Florida
(48:36):
and then all the way acrossAmerica, got to LA, and that's
where he's supposed to be going.
And he's like, No, I'm gonnakeep going.
So this is funny, he he turnsnorth and he starts coming
towards up the west coast, and Inoticed that he's near, he's
about 50 miles south of where Ilive.
(48:57):
So I get up one morning, I'mgonna go find the guy.
And and we'd we'd emailed acouple times, but that was it.
He had no idea what I lookedlike.
I knew what he looked like.
So I go, I try to find him.
I can't find him on the road,but the web was blowing about 50
miles that day, 50 miles anhour.
So I figured he'd just hold upsomewhere.
So I I drive back, I'm drivinghome, I stop in a little town
(49:20):
where a buddy of mine lived withme.
He's like, hey, let's go, let'sgo to lunch.
So we go to this little deli,we're sitting out front, having
our lunch, and I catch thismove, a little bit of movement
out of the corner of my eye.
And I look up and it's it'sJohn.
And and he doesn't notice ussitting there.
He's taking pictures ofsomething on the sidewalk.
(49:42):
And so I go, I casually say, HeyJohn.
And the guy looks up at me,like, who the hell are you?
And I'm like, John, it's Jeff.
I've been following him througha trip.
It's like, oh my god.
We ended up connecting.
And uh he actually had to end upcutting short his trip short
because he injured his knee.
He had to fly back home.
(50:03):
And then just recently, a youngwoman pushed across America,
Nick Johnson.
Yeah, I've seen her.
I was nice to connect with her.
She uh her and I talked a fewtimes through uh Arizona, New
Mexico.
I helped her out with someroutes that I need online.
There's a young guy right now,the Marcus James.
(50:23):
He started in San Francisco andhe's going to to New York and
he's doing it solo.
And currently he's in, I thinkhe's in Wyoming now.
Almost done with Wyoming.
And what's interesting is he'son the same route as I used on
the electric bike ride.
So him and I have been chattingonline every once in a while,
preparing notes.
So if you get a chance,definitely follow his ride right
(50:46):
now because it's veryinteresting.
SPEAKER_01 (50:48):
That's amazing.
I think that's such greatadvice.
Just just go for it.
And I get what you're I get whatyou're saying because yeah,
today there's so many naysayersand so many much information.
Talk your way out of it.
It'll just talk your way out ofit for you without even giving
it much of a thought.
SPEAKER_02 (51:04):
Yeah.
So I just say, you know, justgo.
You know, like on the electricbike ride, I I'm I've never been
a what I call a cyclist, or youknow, I I enjoy electric bikes,
but I wasn't really lucky tofind a company out of Santa
Clara called Vintage ElectricBikes.
They like the idea, they loanedme a bike, and off I went.
(51:25):
And and it helps to have a verysupportive wife who lets me go
do these crazy things.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (51:31):
Yeah, and she goes along on some of them, which is
even better.
Well, Jack, this was super fun.
I really appreciate you takingthe time.
Thank you so much for coming onJourney with Jake and sharing
your story with us.
All right.
Thanks for having me.
What an incredible story fromJack Smith, the man who helped
make skateboard history.
Jack, thank you so much forsharing your journey and
inspiring all of us to keeppushing forward no matter where
(51:53):
the road leads.
Be sure to follow Jack onInstagram at Jack underscore
Smith underscore moralunderscore bay to see what he's
up to and catch glimpses of hislatest adventures.
And to all of you listening,thank you.
I'm so grateful for each andevery one of you who tunes into
Journey with Jake.
Every episode teaches mesomething new, and I hope it
(52:14):
inspires you to chase your ownadventures and embrace your
journey too.
We're still rolling throughOctober, which means another
episode is just a couple of daysaway.
Next up, we're heading into theworld of mindfulness and
movement with Carrie Ferguson,whose passion for meditation and
yoga has taken her on someamazing adventures.
Just remember, it's not alwaysabout the destiny as it is about
(52:36):
the journey.
Take care, everybody.
Before there were longboards, energy drinks, or
(00:02):
GoPros, there was Jack Smith.
In 1976, he became one of thefirst to officially skateboard
across America.
His story isn't just about theride, it's about grit, freedom,
and chasing something biggerthan yourself.
Welcome to Journey with Day.
This is a podcast aboutadventure, and how through our
adventures we can overcome thechallenges of life that come our
(00:23):
way.
Well, I expect you will learnsome things about different
adventures.
The show will entertain you.
Each episode will featuredifferent guests, forecasts,
feature experiences, stories,different adventures they have
been done.
Not only will you beentertained, but you'll also
have to tell your differenttrials.
(01:39):
But that first trip was only thebeginning.
Jack has since taken on severalother cross-country rides,
including relay pushes and evenan electric skateboard trek
across the U.S.
His story is packed with historygrit and a whole lot of passion
for adventure.
I do want to apologize for a bitof audio issues, but hopefully
that doesn't deter anyone fromthe spirit of this conversation.
(02:00):
If you enjoyed this episode,you'll also want to check out
episode 151 with Jacob Lamansky,who biked around the world,
another incredible story aboutperseverance in the spirit of
exploration.
All right, let's get rollingwith Jack Smith.
This is fun for me.
I've got Jack Smith on the showwith me today.
Jack, welcome to Journey withJake.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, I'm excited to have you.
(02:21):
I'm excited to hear your story.
Way back in 1976, you took ajourney across America.
I believe, if I'm not mistaken,it was the first skateboarding
trek across the United States,as far as I know.
Yeah, that it was.
SPEAKER_02 (02:34):
It was uh like to say 1976.
I did it with uh two of mybuddies, a guy named Jeff
French, another fellow namedMike Philbin.
Nobody'd ever done it before.
We didn't have a clue what wewere doing.
The way we were able to pull itoff was that we came up with uh
what we call the leapfrog relaymethod.
And the way that works is thiswe'll call them skater A, start
(02:57):
skating in the morning wheneveryou started in the day.
And then skater, so skater Astarts skating.
The support vehicle, which was a1969 Firebird, drove out three
miles in front, stopped.
Skater B jumped out and took offskating.
The support vehicle waited forskater A to get there.
(03:18):
When he got in, got there, he'djump in the car.
The car would then drive threemiles forward, passing the
second skater, stop.
The third skater C would get outand take off, and the car would
wait for skater B to catch up.
So you just did that rotationall day, and we ended up, you
know, skatered 35 to 50 miles aday per skater.
SPEAKER_01 (03:42):
Per skater, so probably closer to 100 miles or
so, something like that.
SPEAKER_02 (03:45):
Some days we approached 150 uh if it was flat
and good pavement.
SPEAKER_01 (03:50):
So that's uh that's how we were able to pull it off.
That's interesting.
Before we in before we even diveinto that, where were uh where
are you from?
Kind of give them a littlebackground before that even
happened, just so I kind of knowwho who Jack is a little bit.
SPEAKER_02 (04:02):
I grew up in a militar in an Air Force family,
went to 17 schools before I wasa sophomore in high school when
we moved to Morrow Bay.
The day after graduation, I seethis you know, old skateboard
laying in the in the ice plant.
And so we dug it out, and it wasa clay wheeled board, and we
started pushing around on it,having fun.
(04:23):
So we built a few more.
We didn't even know the urethanewheels had happened yet.
And so we started uh skating.
We'd go at at night.
We'd only go at night down thein in the downtown area because
skateboarding at the time wasstill considered a kind of a
kid's pastime, and we didn'twant anybody to see us doing it.
(04:45):
Too embarrassing.
Yeah, exactly.
You know, I look at those guys,grow up, you know.
So eventually, you know, the theEarth and Wheels came out and we
got got involved in those and umI just became immersed in it.
I don't know if you've ever seenthe movie Lords of Dogtown.
I have not seen that movie, no.
It's a big Hollywood film, andone of the pivotal scenes in the
(05:08):
movie is what they call the DelMar contest.
It was held in 1975.
And it was kind of the first bigcontest of the 70s.
We traveled down to it andbreezed in it and competed in
it, and uh from there there wasno looking back.
SPEAKER_01 (05:23):
You you kept talking about the wheels.
So originally skateboards in theearly days, they had like what
those like really hard wheels.
What were they made out of?
Well, everybody calls them claywheels.
SPEAKER_02 (05:36):
There was no clay involved.
They just they just they Ialways tell people they look
like clay, they rode like clay,and they crumbled like clay.
They were actually a plasticpolymer.
Some of the companies actuallyput ground-up walnut shells in
the mix as a filler material sothey wouldn't have to use so
much plastic.
And they were terrible.
(05:57):
Any little rock you hit, doubleyou hit, crack in the sidewalk.
You couldn't ride on asphaltbecause it was just too rough.
So that's why in the 60sskateboarding only lasted a
couple of years.
It was a fad.
I mean, there were some guys whowere very good, but there just
wasn't, you know, the controlthat it was needed for the
(06:19):
masses.
So it kind of faded away untilthe Ukraine wheel came out in
the early 70s.
SPEAKER_01 (06:24):
So those came out in the early 70s, and that's what
allowed you to go across the thecountry.
There's no way you could havedone on the other wheels.
SPEAKER_02 (06:31):
Yeah, I mean, you could have, but it wouldn't have
been very difficult.
Because there were people that,you know, back in the 1920s that
rode roller skates acrossAmerica.
Same kind of wheels.
Same kind of and and actuallysome of them might have even
done it on steel wheels.
SPEAKER_01 (06:47):
But it would, yeah, it would have been a nightmare.
So you got stuck, you got hookedon skateboards, you know, you
and your right, you know, rightwhen you graduate.
How did this whole idea of like,hey, we don't know what we're
doing, but we don't care.
We want to go across thecountry.
SPEAKER_02 (07:00):
Well, you know, to this day, I but there was a I
don't remember who said it.
There were a bunch of us weresitting hanging out one evening
in in the summer of well, thespring of 76, and where it's you
know, somebody just threw it outthere.
Hey, let's let's skateboardacross America.
Okay, that sounds fun.
You know, we wouldn't have tohave a regular job that summer.
(07:23):
So I had had a little connectionwith this company from Florida,
a company called Roller Sports.
They had sent me some wheels forthat, the Del Mar race.
It was funny when they sent methe wheels, nobody, you know, my
I told my friends, hey, thiscompany sent me wheels for free.
Nobody believed me.
So when we we hatched this idea,we sat down and we put together
(07:44):
a letter and we mailed it tothem, telling them what we
wanted to do.
And, you know, we we trulythought, we'll never hear from
them.
About 10 days later, we got aletter back from them.
You know, this is back, youknow, of course, pre-internet,
so you had to wait for the mail.
And we got this uh letter fromthe company president.
He said, Hey, this sounds like areally neat idea.
(08:06):
We're we're into it.
Here's the offer we'll make.
And at first we thought it wasgoing to take us like 60 days to
do.
They said, We'll give you allthe gear you need, boards,
wheels, trucks, and then we'llwe'll give you 180, one for each
guy for each day of the trip,which was just kind of bizarre.
(08:28):
And then they said we'll pay you$500 each if you make it.
So we had to make it.
We we came up with uh you knowthe method of the the relay
method.
One of the original, two of theoriginal guys dropped out before
before we even got deep into theplanning stages.
So we got two other guys steppedin.
(08:48):
And then the one guy that camealong, he was a good skater, but
he had the best car of us all ofus.
So, you know, okay, we'll takeyour car, Jeff.
We did we did no training forthis thing.
You know, we're just let's go.
We built a rack for the top ofthe car, which promptly
collapsed before we got outsidebefore we got outside our city
limits.
(09:09):
So we turn around and go buy arack for the top of the car.
We planned our route by justgetting an old road atlas and
and and a Rand McNally roadatlas.
And and our thinking was well,let's let's go across the
northern part of the countrybecause it might be cooler,
which it wasn't, it was plentyhot.
(09:30):
You know that from where youlive.
We thought, well, let's lesspopulation mean maybe less
traffic.
And that that did work out untilwe got towards the east coast.
Um so we started in uh Lebanon,Oregon, and we finished in
Williamsburg, Virginia.
And the the key thing for us waswe had to take back roads, uh
(09:51):
secondary highways, you know, wedidn't want to skate on
interstates.
You know, and it was you know,it was somewhat unnerving, you
know, just you're talking it'sthe mid-70s, we all have hair
down, you know, past ourshoulders, and we're thinking,
you know, are you gonna gethassled?
And we had a few, you know, afew occasions where we got
(10:13):
heckled, but for the most part,people were really helpful,
helped us out with, you know, wegot lost, helped us out with you
know free meals, free lodgingsometimes, staying at people's
houses.
So that that it worked outreally well.
SPEAKER_01 (10:30):
Yeah, I'm you know, I'm thinking about it, and that
was before my time.
I was born in 77, so I missedout, you know, so I'm a little
bit younger.
But you know, I think back tothose times, you know,
skateboarding now is so popular,and there's competitions, and
it's in the 70s though, I don'tI can't imagine, like you said,
it was more of like a littlekids thing.
It wasn't so much a thing.
(10:52):
So I could imagine people seeingyou guys along the road,
especially, I mean, theyprobably thought you were like
hippies, like you know, hippiesfrom California cruising across
the country.
SPEAKER_02 (11:02):
You just nailed it.
That's what you know.
I mean, skateboarding blew upvery quickly, like starting in
about 74, 75.
And and it was still consideredmost people across the country
didn't even know whatskateboarding was in the 70s
when we were going across.
And in the mention, youmentioned the long hair.
Mike had the longest hair of anyof us.
It was halfway down his back.
Mike was somewhat of a you know,a slender build.
(11:24):
He liked to skate with a shirtoff.
So on one more than oneoccasion, people would come
driving up behind Mike and thenslow down right when they got to
him because they thought he wasa girl skating without a shirt
on.
You know, and then they'd lookover like, oh, that's not a
girl, you know, that's a hippie.
SPEAKER_01 (11:40):
So it was for the most part, the people were very
helpful and very friendly.
When you first took off, whenyou first left Lebanon, what was
that kind of feeling like?
Was it just, you know, you gotthe whole world in front of you,
the whole country in front ofyou.
What was going through yourminds as you guys took off?
SPEAKER_02 (11:57):
Yeah, within a few miles we realized it's gonna be
much harder than we thought.
You know, because Lebanon, youskate out of Lebanon, and pretty
soon you're up onto the SandyAnt Pass, climbing, you know, up
through the Cascades.
And, you know, and then at theend of that day, we looked at
the map and you know, we maybewent a hundred miles and and we
looked at it on a map and like,oh, we didn't we've got all this
(12:20):
left to go 2,900 miles.
And yeah, it was kind ofdaunting at the start, but we
got into a rhythm, you know,just put your head down and and
and keep pushing and you know,get the occasional downhill,
which was nice.
SPEAKER_01 (12:32):
Was it kind of like just morning to evening kind of
thing?
How did you guys did you haveplans?
SPEAKER_02 (12:37):
You know, we would kind of look every day on a map
and look at the terrain andthink, okay, we could not too
hilly, not too mountainous, wecan probably make it to this
city.
So we would, you know, pick apoint and say, okay, we want we
want to get here, you know, bythe end of the day.
And some days we did, and andsome days didn't.
And kind of our schedule was, weas we got into the rhythm of
this thing, was we would skate,get up early, skate in the
(13:00):
morning, skate until it got tothe heat of the day, and we'd
try and set it up so that wewould end up in a town that
might have a city pool so wecould hang out at the pool, you
know, during the hot part of theday, and then we would go skate
some more in the evening.
And you know, basically use itas a shower, too.
SPEAKER_01 (13:52):
Oh, you hippies.
Oh, yeah.
Oh amazing.
When you were going across, wasthere any particular moment, any
particular state, maybe aparticular mountain you kind of
I don't know.
Is there any particular maybe acouple a story or two of a
couple of things that you wentthrough that you could share
with us?
SPEAKER_02 (14:10):
In 76, we were going through Idaho and uh and we
ended up in a little town calledIdaho Falls on July 4th.
My I had a cousin that livedthere, and her and her husband
said, Hey, just come stay at ourhouse.
So we did, and it wasinteresting, it's kind of the
sign of the times is that heworked for a big potato company
up there.
(14:30):
He was a general manager orsomething, and we were so
amazed.
He took us to his office and helet us make what they called
watch calls, wide area telephoneservice, long-distance phone
calls for free.
You know, that was a huge deal.
Like, we could what?
We don't have to pay to callhome.
But the other thing thathappened in Idaho Falls, we were
(14:53):
there on July 4th.
So that during the day that day,we took a day off.
And I remember asking mycousin's husband's name was
Dave.
I'm like, hey, can we go checkout some fireworks tonight?
And he's like, no, there's nofireworks display tonight.
I'm like, it's July 4th, it's1976, it's a bicentennial.
There's gotta be a fireworks.
(15:13):
He says, You're you're you're inuh you're in Idaho, this is
Mormon country.
Fireworks are can't be on theSabbath there tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01 (15:23):
So we waited around another day to see the
fireworks.
1976, too.
I mean, yeah, that's classic,you know, and it happened to
fall on a you know, I'm fromUtah, so I know what he's
talking about.
SPEAKER_02 (15:34):
You know, yeah, it was it was uh it was you know,
we were just three kids from asmall town in California, we had
no idea that you know that thatkind of thing happened.
Wow, and how about makinglong-distance telephone calls?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I mean that flashing forward toanother thing that happened that
was really cool was uh we're inMinnesota, we're approaching
(15:55):
Minneapolis, and Jeff's skatingalong, he's out in front of the
car skating, and when we catchup, we finally catch up to him,
we see him standing in thisparking lot under this big motel
sign, you know, 30, 40 feethigh, it has a big marquee, and
it says, Welcome skateboarders.
And we're like, okay, that'sgotta be us.
We walk in and say, hey, whereare the skateboarders?
(16:16):
What's going on?
And they said, Oh, your yourlocal chamber of commerce
contacted the town was calledHopkins, Minnesota, contacted
our chamber of commerce and saidyou'd be coming through.
So we thought we'd give you afree place to stay.
And we got the full rock startreatment.
We were we uh the place wascalled the Hopkins House.
(16:36):
We had each of us was one bigsuite on the top floor, each of
us had our own room.
You had to take a specialelevator to the top, same kind
of deal.
They said everything's on thehouse, meals, and they said, and
you can make phone calls, justgo ahead and call, don't worry
about the cost.
And to us, once again, that wasa huge deal.
(16:58):
So we called everybody we knew,you know, and told them we were
brought stars for the day andfor the evening.
And I that you know, it's funny.
I still have photos of that uhof that marquee.
And yeah, and it was really coolof our chamber of commerce to to
do that.
Um head of the chamber ofcommerce when I told him what
we're doing.
(17:18):
He said, hey, I'm gonna writesome letters to people along
your route and see if I can helpyou out.
SPEAKER_01 (17:22):
And some of the chambers help us out.
That's amazing, especiallybecause you think back then,
it's pre-internet days.
There's no social media to like,I mean, now people go in now,
they can, you know, people knowpeople are coming, and it's just
totally different.
And I always tell people that,you know, I've done this thing
numerous times.
SPEAKER_02 (17:39):
The first one was to this day is still my favorite
because nobody knew where theheck we were at.
We were just out, we didn't haveto post every day.
There was nowhere to post.
You know, and we worked out thissystem where, you know, every
couple of days one of us wouldcall our parents.
And then that parent would callthe other two parents and say,
(18:01):
hey, you know, they're still outthere, they're okay, you know,
so we didn't have to spend moneyon phone calls.
Um, but you know, you know, asit as the years went on and you
know, finally social media camearound.
I think 2003 was the first timewe made use of social media, you
know, and it added a wholenother layer to the trip because
at the end of the day, you'redone skating.
Okay, now we've got to go onsocial media, you know, we've
(18:23):
got to thank our sponsors, talkabout where we're at, you know.
So, and not that that's a badthing, it just added more work.
SPEAKER_01 (18:30):
Different.
Yeah, just more things to do.
Different.
There's definitely, you know, Imean, maps and just everything
is so much different now withthe technology.
SPEAKER_02 (18:39):
Here you go.
My in in 2013, last time Ipushed, my son was on the team,
my son Dylan.
And then my my my wife wasKathy, was the support vehicle
driver.
And Dylan and I would always getinto these conversations.
He'd be looking at Google Maps.
I'd be looking at the Atlas, andI'd say, Well, what about this
broad?
And he's like, It's not onGoogle Maps, Dad.
(19:00):
I'm like, I don't care.
It's on the Atlas.
It does make it easier for forroute finding, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (19:08):
Yeah, and that first trip, and we're we're kind of
talking about the first tripbecause I know you have done it
multiple times.
I think you did it, yeah, whatdid you say, 2003, 2013?
The second one was in 84.
SPEAKER_02 (19:18):
84, okay.
And that was with my twobuddies, uh, three guys,
actually Gary Floitt and PaulDunn, who grew up here in
Morrill Bay, and they're youknow six, seven years younger
than me.
And there's another fellow whohad went on the trip with his
Bob tonight, but Gary and Paulwere here, and we were skate
friends.
You know, they just got tired ofhearing all my stories.
(19:38):
And they said, In 84, there wasa situation where Highway 1 in
Morrow Bay, north of us uptowards Big Sur, was closed.
And the week before they weregoing to reopen it, we got a
friend to drive us around oneroadblock and we drove until we
hit the next roadblock, and weskated 58 miles on Highway 1
when it was closed, brand newpavement.
(19:59):
And on that trip, that's wherethe seeds of the 84 trip were
born.
You know, we put that triptogether, equipment had improved
a ton.
In fact, I'll show yousomething.
I've got brought these out justso you can see them.
This is the little board, only25 inches long, six inches wide.
These wheels were we thoughtthey were huge, but they're only
(20:24):
57 millimeters in diameter.
So that this is not the actualboard I rode, this is a replica.
The board I rode in 76 is inSmithsonian now.
SPEAKER_01 (20:36):
Wow, very cool.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (20:38):
By 84, things have changed.
We had a big old board, 40inches long, 70 millimeter
wheel, wider trucks, and it wasit just made the trip much
easier.
And we did it.
Uh the first trip took 32 days,and 76, 84, it took us uh 26
days.
SPEAKER_01 (20:58):
Wow, okay.
Picked up the picked up thepace.
SPEAKER_02 (21:01):
We had four guys, and you had more of a rest
period.
SPEAKER_00 (21:03):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:06):
What about as far as just like the wheels wearing out
and things like that?
I mean, did you have to likechange wheels every so often, or
is it pretty good?
SPEAKER_02 (21:12):
In 76, we changed wheels a lot because it was what
we call first generationurethane.
The constant heating and coolingof the wheels would cause them
to lose whatever resilience theyhad.
They were really, they, I mean,they wear down a bit, but it was
really that they would just getslower because they'd lose the
resilience.
In 84, I think we changed wheelstwice.
(21:33):
That's how good they were.
So we're you know, in 84, weskated, you know, 750 to 800
miles was our total per skater.
In 76, it was right around athousand miles per skater.
And as we as the as the yearswent on, everything just kept
getting better.
Specialized decks, specializedtrucks, uh, your thing compounds
(21:57):
improved.
Um the difference between 1984and 2003, and that little dude
there on the nose of the board,that's my son Ju passed away in
in 2003 from a syndrome calledLowe syndrome, very rare genetic
(22:17):
syndrome.
And that's when we did the trickin 2003 to raise funds and
awareness for low syndrome.
How old was your son when hepassed away?
He was 14.
Wow, okay, so he's 14 years old.
When he was born, we were toldthat he probably wouldn't live
past two.
So he pulled everybody and livedat 14.
SPEAKER_01 (22:37):
Wow, amazing.
SPEAKER_02 (22:38):
Yeah, how many kids do you have then?
I have I have two two sons.
I actually have three.
I have Jack, who passed away,and then Dylan, and then there's
Will, and then a daughter,Lauren.
SPEAKER_01 (22:51):
So was the one who passed away, Jack, was he the
oldest's son?
He was yeah, he was the oldest,yeah.
He was the oldest.
Okay, wow.
And you lost your son at 14.
That served as some motivation.
Did you have motivation likethat for your other trips too in
2013, 2084?
SPEAKER_02 (23:06):
In 84, we decided, let's, if we're going to do this
thing, let's do it for cause.
So we actually connected withthe uh Multiple Sclerosis
Society.
They were into it right from thestart.
People could pledge moneydirectly to us or to the
Multiple Sclerosis Society.
And it was really interestingwhen we left Morrow Bay to drive
(23:27):
up to Oregon in '84, the MSSociety would just happen to be
having their national conventionin San Francisco.
So they invited us to stop byfor lunch.
And we got introduced to thewhole crowd.
And, you know, it was funny,everybody's in suits and ties
and we're in shorts andt-shirts.
But they was just standing onrace home, we laughed.
They, you know, they were veryappreciative of our efforts.
(23:50):
Different places across thecountry, they they arranged for
press for us uh to talk about MSand where we're doing this.
One funny story is in Boise,Idaho, they arranged for us to
go to the steps at the state tothe steps of the state capitol
and do a press conference.
They also got us a motorcycle uhescort, police motorcycle
(24:10):
escort.
And so as they pick us up on theother town, they ask Paul, they
said, Um, how kind of can youguys skate?
And Paul's like, Oh, 15 miles anhour.
Yeah, we can skate 15 miles anhour for short periods.
So the the cops drove 15 milesan hour about kids before we got
to the state capitol, and thendid the same thing when we left.
(24:32):
But it was funny to be, youknow, because there's always
been perceived friction betweenlaw enforcement and
skateboarders and to beescorted, you know, by the
police.
And we kind of thought, youknow, are they doing this to
keep us safe or they just wantus out of town?
SPEAKER_01 (24:51):
Are they really, yeah, are they trying to get us
out of here?
What's the deal?
That's funny.
That's good stuff.
SPEAKER_02 (24:56):
While we're while we're on the 84 trip, I I just
want to share this.
It's the most amazing story ofany trip I've been on.
So 1984.
We're near we're on the westside of Yellowstone.
It's raining when we get up inthe morning.
We usually started right atsunrise.
We couldn't that day because ofthe raining, so we had to hang
out, followed, you know, theroads dried up, we start
(25:17):
skating.
We knew that we couldn't skatethrough Yellowstone.
So we'd get a mile from thegate, we'd uh we'd get in the
car, we'd drive to the gate, wepay our feet, we get about a
mile into the park, stop, one ofus starts skating.
Right away, we get busted.
I mean, we had went a hundredyards and we got busted.
(25:38):
So look, hey, we're here anyway,let's let's play tourists.
So we go down to Old Faithful,and we it just went off.
So, all right, well, let's justwalk around a little bit and
then we'll come back and see it,you know, erupt.
We walk around, come back,missed it again.
So we thought, okay, we're justgonna sit there for 56 minutes
(26:00):
or whatever it is.
So we sit there and we iterupts.
So then we have to drive to theeastern gate of Yellowstone.
So we get there, once we get outof the park, we start, we're
going along, there's two guys inthe car, one skater out in
front, and as the two guys aredriving along, all of a sudden
(26:23):
this woman comes running up ontothe road.
She's looks crazed.
She's she's muddy, she's wet,and she's waving it the she's
waving at the we're in the we'rein the van.
Chrysler gave us the van thatsummer, and we we had it, you
(26:43):
know, lettered with what we weredoing.
Skateboard, and and she's she'sscreaming at us to stop.
So we stopped, and she's are youthe ambulance?
And we're like, No.
Later on, we figured out why shethought we why she thought we
were an ambulance, because wecould, with all the lettering,
we could have determined used tous look like an ambulance.
(27:04):
And we're like, no, what's goingon?
And she says, I think mydaughter drowned, I think my
baby drowned.
And about that time, thiscowboy-looking guy comes up out
of the creek with a littletwo-year-old girl in his arms.
And he looks dead.
And we're like, put her in thevan, we'll we'll take you to
(27:24):
where we're about 40 miles eastof or 40 miles west of Cody,
lining a time.
She's like, and she's so freakedout, she says, But I'll I'm
gonna I'll get your van, we'regonna get your van, Muddy.
And like Paul just says, get inthe damn van.
And so they jump in the van.
So Paul's with them, they takeoff down the road towards Cody,
(27:47):
myself and and Gary are juststanding there.
And so Paul goes flying up theroad, passing Bob, and Bob just
looks at him like, Where theheck are you going?
You know, he had no idea whathad happened.
So they're going along, Paulsees the sheriff's car coming
the other way.
So Paul just pulls the van andblocks the highway.
(28:10):
So the sheriff would stop.
Because he's thinking thesheriff can get her to the
hospital quicker than we could.
So the sheriff stops at first,he's like kind of pissed off,
like, what are you doing?
And we we got this little girlon car.
Right then, the little girlstops bleeding again.
So they take her out of the car,she's on the side of the road,
they're doing CPR, the sheriff'shelping out.
(28:30):
Just at that time, a doctor onhis way to Yellowstone for a
family vacation just happens todrive up.
He jumps out, he takes over thescene, and he's like, Look, we
gotta get her to Cody right now.
So they put her in the searchcar and they take her and they
go to Cody.
Turns around, comes back andfinds us.
(28:52):
We're all pumped on a drain.
We skate there, so we have 40miles to skate.
So we had to eventually make itto Cody, we get a cab drive, and
then after dinner, we're like,we should go, let's go to the
hospital, let's see whathappens.
Just as we walk into the maindoors of the hospital, the mom
is running out, and she's like,Oh, thank you guys, you know,
(29:12):
for your help.
And we're like, How's yourdaughter?
Like, I don't know.
They just put her in a lifelinehelicopter for Salt Lake City,
and she left.
So we had no idea.
Flashboard now to 2011.
Gary, one of the skaters on thetrip, was moving back from
Colorado to California, and he'sgoing through getting ready to
(29:36):
move, and he finds a newspaperarticle that we had been sent.
Because, you know, like I say,there was no internet.
So what we would do is wheneverwe got interviewed, we would
give the reporter aself-addressed self-ass
self-stacked envelope, and theywould send us the article.
And in that article, itmentioned that this little girl
had been life-slided to selllike she would condition
(29:59):
unknown.
But it mentioned her last nameand and her first name Gary like
I wonder what happened to her.
Gary actually works worked onGoogle at the time.
So he's a Google expert.
So he starts looking around andhe finds a person of about the
same age, same name, living inthe Salt Lake City area.
(30:22):
So he sends an email, he tracksher down to the house, finds an
email address, sends her email,and says, Hey, 1984 myself.
And two buddies were skatingacross the country, and we were
involved in what we think was ahopeful recipe, but we don't
know.
And we're just wondering if Iwas wondering if you're with
that little girl.
(30:42):
So four months go by.
She gets no response.
Finally, she gets an email.
The email starts out very I wasvery surprised to get your email
today.
I don't use this email accountanymore.
The only reason I came onlinetoday was to disclosure.
And then she says, Yes, I amthat hungry girl.
(31:05):
I thank you for helping forsaving my life.
She says I had no ill effectsfrom the near drowning.
I'm you know, whatever, 27, 30years old now.
I'm a newspaper reporter, justgetting ready to publish my
first novel.
And so Gary shares that emailwith all of us.
(31:26):
And I remember the night he sentit to me, I was sitting at my
desk and I get the email, I readthrough it, and then I tried to
read it to my wife, and I justtotally lost it.
Because I started thinking ofall the things that lined up to
put us there at that right time.
SPEAKER_01 (31:44):
So it was that's the most craziest thing that ever
happened on either.
That's an amazing story.
It's a beautiful story, and I,you know, you know, sitting
there listening to K is like,why is he why is he telling us
about missing old faithful acouple times?
Well, that's why.
I mean, you had to miss it inorder to line up.
SPEAKER_02 (32:03):
I mean, everything just the road between
Yellowstone and Cody, you know,it has some traffic, but not a
lot, you know.
And who knows?
Well, we wouldn't have beenthere.
That's amazing.
SPEAKER_01 (32:15):
That is wow.
And it just especially the timethat went by.
84 to 2011, you know, beforeamazing.
SPEAKER_02 (32:24):
Yeah, I get juice bumps every time I tell the
story.
Some usually I get teary-eyedtoo, because it's just it's so
heavy.
SPEAKER_01 (32:29):
Oh, absolutely.
So impactful.
Wow.
That is that's amazing.
As you look back over the yearsand you know, the the multiple
times you've done it, what kindof go, you know, what kind of
thoughts go through your mind?
Is do you and I know you'reabout to do something else.
I think you're about ready to goon another cross-country
adventure.
Why do you keep doing this?
What's the what's the joy in itfor you?
SPEAKER_02 (32:51):
To me, ever since that first trip, I learned that
going slowly across America isthe best way to see it.
You don't miss anything.
You hear everything, you seeeverything, you smell
everything.
Um, in fact, uh, when we werecoming back, my wife and I were
driving back across America inin 2018 from my electric board
(33:16):
ride.
We're on like Interstate 70 or80, and she kind of looks out in
the distance, you know, from theinterstate, and she points and
she goes, we were going past anexit, and she goes, No, this
isn't the real America.
And she pointed into thedistance.
She says, The real America'sover there when you get away
from the freeway.
Because on the interstate, everyexit's the same, you know, when
(33:36):
you're going across the country.
You know, we're skating throughthese small little towns,
meeting people, uh, sharing ourstory, hearing their stories,
what it's like to grow up inthese these little places.
I gotta tell you, from 76 towhen I did uh the electric bike
ride last year, a lot of smalltown America's gone.
Little towns have just fadedaway.
(33:56):
I just enjoy, you know, like Isay, seeing America in different
ways.
And and then and the personalchallenge too.
You know, like this thing I'mgetting the plan was to leave
actually on Friday to do thismotorcycle uh ride across
America.
But some things have come up, soit's it's been pushed back a
bit.
(34:17):
So it's it's it'll probablystill happen.
You know, it's just uh theelectric bike ride thing last
year was a blast.
I also did a few years ago, Imyself and a couple buddies
drove a 1964 electric Volkswagenvan has been converted to
electric.
We followed the route of thefirst guy that can drive a car
(34:37):
across San Francisco to NewYork.
And then we on the way back wedid the Lincoln Highway.
And then the next year Kathy andI borrowed the van again.
A friend of mine has a companycalled EV West, and they convert
whatever you want to electric.
So I asked him, hey, can Iborrow that bus again?
(34:59):
And he's like, Well, what's thedeal?
I said, Well, my wife and I areboth turning 66.
We got a new Route 66.
So he let us borrow it again,and and uh my wife and I drove
from Chicoliva to Santa Monica,Route 66.
Took us three weeks, it was ablast.
Um, and then last year, like Isaid, I did the electric bike
thing, which was I followed theroute of the first time to ride
(35:22):
a motorcycle across Tennessee.
And then with the motorcycle,with the motorcycle trip in the
works right now, I'm going tofollow the route that I used in
1976 the first time.
SPEAKER_01 (35:33):
It was fun, you know, fun and challenge.
I kind of want to ask if youjust kind of I guess we'll call
them rapid fire, but just kindof some questions about some of
the things.
So, and it could be maybe youknow, 76 if we want to go there,
but it doesn't have to be, itcan be any of your trips.
But is there a particular placethat's like your favorite?
Like when you get to like acertain state or a certain area
where you're just like, oh, Ilove this place.
SPEAKER_02 (35:53):
My favorite skate state to skate through is South
Dakota.
South Dakota.
Because you don't have to turn,you don't need directions, and
it's and it's kind of uh you'reon Highway 212 the whole way,
and it's nice rolling hills.
You get as much up as you dodown, and it's always just and
(36:14):
it's I love the the wide open,you know, wheat fields, I just
love that.
SPEAKER_01 (36:18):
Very good.
So South Dakota, I love that.
Besides your buddy, you know,with the long hair who did
skates without a shirt, andpeople kind of got a reaction
from people from him.
Any other kind of strangereactions from people?
Uh yes.
1976 again.
SPEAKER_02 (36:36):
We're in West Virginia, up in the
Appalachians, and it's about uhlunchtime, or it's early
evening.
You know, we pull into this, youknow, skate up this little
diner, and nothing but pickuptrucks, and we, you know, we go
walking in, and it's there'sthat Bob Seeger song about
(36:56):
walking into a cafe, andeverybody look turns around and
says, Is that a woman or a man?
And we walk in, and everybody inthe cafe turns and looks at us.
Like, who are these freaks?
And then they just went back totheir their meal.
The waitress barely spoke to usjust enough to get ordered.
(37:19):
This this old older guy walksover to the jump and he um puts
in his dime and punches up.
Thank God I'm a country boy byJohn Denver.
So, you know, we just we're justgetting this weird vibe.
So let's hurry up and eat andget out of here.
We get done, we walk, two of us,Jeff and I walk over to pay the
(37:41):
bill.
Then we see Mike walking over tothe jukebox.
We have no idea what he's up to.
He looks at through the songs,puts his dime in, and selects
the song by Fool for the City,which is a rocker.
And he comes walking over to usreal quick and says, All right,
we better get out of here.
(38:02):
We gotta have it real quick, youknow, before anything can
happen.
SPEAKER_01 (38:05):
Uh the characters, I mean, that and that's gotta be
just across all of your travels,just different parts of the
country, different, you know,people from all types.
SPEAKER_02 (38:14):
I think it was I think it was 76 again.
We're in uh in Ohio somewhere,we're at a gas station.
And and this guy, we know end ofthe day, we're gonna go to our
campground.
And this long, super long-hairedguy pulls up, getting gas at the
next gas pump and like, what areyou guys doing?
We told him what we're up to,and he's he's like, Well, where
(38:36):
are you staying tonight?
I said, We're gonna stay at thecampground.
He's like, No, no, you're youstay in my house.
You know, just follow me.
You know, he goes over the firsthe goes to the pond booth, and
he calls his wife, says, Hey,I'm bringing helps the company,
you know, three three guys, yougotta make some more food.
You know, there's a guy we nevermet.
You know, we we and we but wethere was enough trust, yeah,
we're gonna stay at your house,man.
SPEAKER_01 (38:57):
Is there a particular skateboard that
you're most sentimental about?
It would be that that first oneI showed you, the little bitty
one.
SPEAKER_02 (39:05):
You know, I mean that's that's you know, next
year is the 50-year anniversaryof that first ride.
And my wife and I are actuallyputting together a project where
we're going to, in an electricVolkswagen, either ours or one
we borrow, we're going toretrace the route.
I'm going to skate certainsections.
I'm not going to skate the wholething.
(39:25):
I'm inviting other skaters whohave done cross-country trips or
who've skated with me on some ofmine, you know, to come in and
join us for a day here andthere.
And we're going to interviewthem.
You know, what did the trip meanto them?
Did it change your life?
How do you when you think backon it?
And hopefully I'm going to beable to track down some people
who we met on that first trip orjust document the little changes
(39:45):
in the towns that we, some ofthe towns we went through.
SPEAKER_01 (39:48):
So that's that's what we're looking at for next
year.
Is there a particularcross-country snack of choice
for Jack?
SPEAKER_02 (39:57):
Well, not really snack, but the drink of choice
for a lot of these was Gatorade.
But in uh on the 2003 trip, wegot to the point where we
couldn't look at Gatorade.
Too much.
Yeah.
And to this day, my friend GaryFlewett, who went on the 84
trip, if we went in, if we tothis day, if we walked into a
(40:18):
restaurant someplace, we couldorder each other's meals.
We we knew what each otherwanted to had a doubt, what we'd
have for each meal.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (40:26):
I love it.
SPEAKER_02 (40:27):
That's that's fantastic.
The trip that was really fun wasthe the electric skateboard ride
because I'd always wanted to doit solo, and the electric board
gave me that opportunity.
And it was just my wife and I,and it was a hectic summer
because our daughter got marriedin June, our son got married in
July, and well, my wife retiredfrom teaching in June.
(40:50):
So we had this hectic summer,and then in August we take off
the skateboard across it, ridethe electric board across
Mexico.
It was just her and me, 53 days.
And we had a Volkswagen, uh, anewer Volkswagen, a Vanigan
camper that a company let usborrow.
And um, you know, we just justher and I trying to figure it
out how to do this.
(41:11):
You know, we finished on thestep steps of the Smithsonian,
and it was uh it was a reallyfun trip.
It was uh and to use the newtechnology was was also
interesting.
In fact, hang on, I'll screw itup for you.
Yeah, absolutely.
Let's check it out.
That's it, huh?
Yeah, that little thing on thefront's a remote.
You just hold that in your hand.
There's uh this little area hereis where the battery went, and
(41:32):
you could get about um seven tothirte miles, depending on
terrain per battery.
Kathy would would drive out infront of me and she would be
charging the batteries.
And then when I caught up toher, I'd give her whatever
batteries I'd used.
She'd give me fresh ones.
And and one time I made themistake when we got back,
somebody asked me, so your wifefollowed you across the country?
(41:54):
And I'm like, Yeah.
And she's like, No, I led youacross the country.
Get that right, Jack.
She had the much harder jobbecause she had to, you know, do
route finding, find places tostay.
And it was very brave of herbecause, you know, she's parked
on the side of the road in themiddle of nowhere by herself.
(42:15):
And every once in a while, I'dcome, you know, as I got close
enough to see her up ahead onthe road, once every once in a
while there'd be a policemanthere.
And they'd been or high patrol,you know, they'd drive by and
like, what's that woman doingout here by herself?
So they'd stop and talk to her,and sometimes they'd wait around
and just they want to meet thisidiot you know, riding a
electric skateboard across thecountry.
SPEAKER_01 (42:36):
If you look back, you know, all the years that
you've done this, what have youdone with it?
Because I think, if I'm notmistaken, you said something
about a screenplay and somethingabout a book.
So is that are you trying totake all those experiences and
what do you want to do with it?
SPEAKER_02 (42:50):
Well, we made a little documentary in 2016 about
the 76 trip.
It's eight minutes long becausewe didn't have much to work
with.
Because back in 76, you had toshoot Super 8 film, it was a
hassle.
And we had and then and evenshooting regular steel pictures
was a hassle because you had toget film, you had to develop it.
So we made this littleeight-minute film all beyond the
(43:13):
sidewalk.
But then I kept thinking, youknow, I'd like to do a feature
film, not a documentary.
And so I came up, startedworking on it, and I've done a
fictionalized version of that 76trip, and it's called With No
Direction Home.
I've incorporated things thathappened on some of the other
trips.
Like I incorporated the littlegirl drowning story into that
(43:37):
trip in 76, even though ithappened in 84.
Got the screenplay done, andthere's actually a little bit of
interest in it.
So hopefully it'll move forward.
But now I've I've taken, I'vedone it kind of backwards.
I've transformed it into anovel, and I'm actually in the
final editing stages of thatright now.
And then I don't know if I'llself-publish it or try and find
(44:00):
a publisher for it.
SPEAKER_01 (44:01):
Good for you.
I love that.
I love the fact that you'retaking those experiences and and
doing something with them.
SPEAKER_02 (44:06):
I was just gonna say, probably the one of the
most important things that cameout of that first 1576 was that
you know it gave me theconfidence to try things, to try
new things.
You know, it's like if youreally put your mind to it, you
can't do these things.
And it's kind of carried overthroughout my life with me.
SPEAKER_01 (44:23):
And that's what I wanted to ask.
I wanted to ask kind of how itrelated to your to your life.
And that's what it sounds like.
Like the confidence, the factthat I mean, and I would imagine
there were times where you'reprobably like, why am I doing
this?
And maybe you had moments whereyou wanted to quit.
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (44:39):
Yeah, many times, you know, for on every single
trip.
You you reach more than oncesometimes.
When we went over the theRockies in, I remember in 2003,
right by Jackson Hole, coming infrom Idaho up over the Teton
Pass.
You know, I'm like, why the heckam I doing this?
(45:02):
You know, I'm I'm just it's hot,super tired.
And then, you know, living in avan or a sport vehicle with
three or four other guys for amonth, you know, things get
testy sometimes.
SPEAKER_01 (45:14):
This has been amazing to hear your your story
and what you've done.
I think it's awesome that it'sit's built so much in you and
your character and who you are.
I like to ask this question onon all my shows because it's a
journey with Jake's an adventurepodcast, and it's kind of who
you are.
For you, Jack, when you thinkabout adventure, you think of
the word adventure, what doesadventure mean to you?
SPEAKER_02 (45:33):
Experiencing, you know, it sounds funny,
experience something new becauseI've done this these crossings,
but each one is new in itschallenges as far as what I'm
what type of vehicle I'm using,which route I'm doing, and
everyone's every every trip isdifferent.
Probably the best quote I'veever heard about adventure comes
(45:54):
from Yvonne Shenard, who is thefounder of Patagonia, and he
always says it's not anadventure until something goes
wrong.
And he writes.
SPEAKER_01 (46:06):
Yeah, no, I have one of my guests talked about that.
That you know, it's theadventure doesn't really begin
until something goes wrong.
And then how do you react?
What do you do?
How do you respond?
I mean, yeah, where you keepgoing or yeah, yeah.
Yours your adventure with thethe girl who drowned, you know,
is drowning.
That nothing went right there,but man, look at that.
(46:27):
Look back on look at theadventure that that was getting
you know, oh man, amazing.
All right, looking back, youlook back at young Jack, 1976,
Jack.
Here we are in 2025.
Knowing all you know now, andJack's getting ready to leave in
that 1976 trip, what would yourcurrent self, Jack, tell younger
Jack?
SPEAKER_02 (46:47):
This is a great question.
Just because I've been around along time and people find me on
the internet and that aregetting ready to do a
cross-country trip, and they'llask me, you know, for advice.
And I'll just I it's reallysimple.
I just say, just go.
You know, and and it'sinteresting because there's a
(47:09):
lot of you know, differentforums on the on the internet,
long-distance skating forums,long-distance bicycling,
whatever it may be, especiallythe long-distance skateboarding.
And you know, some guy will comeon and or a girl and say, hey,
I'm thinking about doing thiscross-country trip.
And people on the forum, youknow, instead, I mean, there are
(47:30):
some positive people, but peoplestart asking, well, what about
this?
What about that?
How are you gonna do this?
And I I posted one time, youknow, I'm glad the internet
wasn't around in 76 because Iprobably wouldn't have gone.
Because you you heard all thisnegativity.
What's really fun for me isright now, in this last few
years, there's been kind of arenaissance of people pushing
(47:52):
across America.
There was a guy a few years ago,Chad Caruso, did it by himself,
documented the whole thing, madea great documentary across the
America, and you know, hereached out to me before, and I
couldn't really give any advicebecause he was doing a much
different route.
But the guy did it, you know,with a back a little backpack on
(48:14):
a small board, not a lot ofboard.
He did use bigger soccer wheels.
Was it last year or year before?
Another fellow, Jason VentOpera, him and a buddy did it
without a support crew, and thenjust recently uh a guy, John
Underhill, uh, started in NorthCarolina and skated to Florida
(48:36):
and then all the way acrossAmerica, got to LA, and that's
where he's supposed to be going.
And he's like, No, I'm gonnakeep going.
So this is funny, he he turnsnorth and he starts coming
towards up the west coast, and Inoticed that he's near, he's
about 50 miles south of where Ilive.
(48:57):
So I get up one morning, I'mgonna go find the guy.
And and we'd we'd emailed acouple times, but that was it.
He had no idea what I lookedlike.
I knew what he looked like.
So I go, I try to find him.
I can't find him on the road,but the web was blowing about 50
miles that day, 50 miles anhour.
So I figured he'd just hold upsomewhere.
So I I drive back, I'm drivinghome, I stop in a little town
(49:20):
where a buddy of mine lived withme.
He's like, hey, let's go, let'sgo to lunch.
So we go to this little deli,we're sitting out front, having
our lunch, and I catch thismove, a little bit of movement
out of the corner of my eye.
And I look up and it's it'sJohn.
And and he doesn't notice ussitting there.
He's taking pictures ofsomething on the sidewalk.
(49:42):
And so I go, I casually say, HeyJohn.
And the guy looks up at me,like, who the hell are you?
And I'm like, John, it's Jeff.
I've been following him througha trip.
It's like, oh my god.
We ended up connecting.
And uh he actually had to end upcutting short his trip short
because he injured his knee.
He had to fly back home.
(50:03):
And then just recently, a youngwoman pushed across America,
Nick Johnson.
Yeah, I've seen her.
I was nice to connect with her.
She uh her and I talked a fewtimes through uh Arizona, New
Mexico.
I helped her out with someroutes that I need online.
There's a young guy right now,the Marcus James.
(50:23):
He started in San Francisco andhe's going to to New York and
he's doing it solo.
And currently he's in, I thinkhe's in Wyoming now.
Almost done with Wyoming.
And what's interesting is he'son the same route as I used on
the electric bike ride.
So him and I have been chattingonline every once in a while,
preparing notes.
So if you get a chance,definitely follow his ride right
(50:46):
now because it's veryinteresting.
SPEAKER_01 (50:48):
That's amazing.
I think that's such greatadvice.
Just just go for it.
And I get what you're I get whatyou're saying because yeah,
today there's so many naysayersand so many much information.
Talk your way out of it.
It'll just talk your way out ofit for you without even giving
it much of a thought.
SPEAKER_02 (51:04):
Yeah.
So I just say, you know, justgo.
You know, like on the electricbike ride, I I'm I've never been
a what I call a cyclist, or youknow, I I enjoy electric bikes,
but I wasn't really lucky tofind a company out of Santa
Clara called Vintage ElectricBikes.
They like the idea, they loanedme a bike, and off I went.
(51:25):
And and it helps to have a verysupportive wife who lets me go
do these crazy things.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (51:31):
Yeah, and she goes along on some of them, which is
even better.
Well, Jack, this was super fun.
I really appreciate you takingthe time.
Thank you so much for coming onJourney with Jake and sharing
your story with us.
All right.
Thanks for having me.
What an incredible story fromJack Smith, the man who helped
make skateboard history.
Jack, thank you so much forsharing your journey and
inspiring all of us to keeppushing forward no matter where
(51:53):
the road leads.
Be sure to follow Jack onInstagram at Jack underscore
Smith underscore moralunderscore bay to see what he's
up to and catch glimpses of hislatest adventures.
And to all of you listening,thank you.
I'm so grateful for each andevery one of you who tunes into
Journey with Jake.
Every episode teaches mesomething new, and I hope it
(52:14):
inspires you to chase your ownadventures and embrace your
journey too.
We're still rolling throughOctober, which means another
episode is just a couple of daysaway.
Next up, we're heading into theworld of mindfulness and
movement with Carrie Ferguson,whose passion for meditation and
yoga has taken her on someamazing adventures.
Just remember, it's not alwaysabout the destiny as it is about
(52:36):
the journey.
Take care, everybody.
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